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  • Why Tamil-Muslim unity crucial for peace

    Sep 23

    The author of this piece, ARM Imtiyaz, is a visiting scholar at the Department of Political Science, Temple University, USA. These are excerpts from a paper presented during a conference on "Ending the war and bringing justice and peace to Sri Lanka" held at Ontario Federation of Labor in Toronto.

    This essay, however, attempts to examine relations between the Tamils and the Muslims, particularly the Eastern Muslims and to emphasise the importance of a truth-and-ethnic-reconciliation approach to build unity between these groups.

     

    The Muslims live all throughout the island "in small communities," and maintain smooth ethnic cohabitation with the Sinhalese for some obvious political and trade objectives. However, they claim they are the majority in the Amparai district of the Eastern province, where exist social and political tension between the Tamils and the Muslims. The Northern and Eastern Muslims became victims of a vicious cycle of ethnic instability that led to the ethnic civil war between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. Muslims of the North and East now claim that they have some special problems and seek solutions to their grievances.

     

    The Tamil-Muslim divide

     

    In Sri Lanka, politicians emotionalize ethnic relations. There had been a trend in the Sinhala political establishment since S.W. R. D. Bandaranaike's time to effectively ethnicize the political system and relations between different ethnic groups and to outbid opponents on an anti-Tamil platform. The politicization of ethnic emotions by southern parties failed the country and eventually drove the Tamils and the Sinhalese into a gory ethnic civil war.

     

    The political establishment of the Muslims supports the Sinhala political leaders for political and commercial purposes: they vigorously oppose the Tamil demand for self-autonomy in the merged North and East and support successive Sinhala-dominated governments' military actions against the Tamils.

    A notable feature of the Tamil-Muslim relations in contemporary Sri Lanka is the Muslim desire to develop a non-Tamil identity based on Islam, a religion which strictly calls obedience only to Allah, a profound message that relentlessly resists any forms of obeisance to all other powers.

     

    The Muslims' decision to seek their own identity based on Islam triggered Tamil anger, but the Muslims primarily blame the Tamils for their disinterest in the wider Tamil identity: the Tamil threat for the Muslim existence cited as the key factor.

     

    This goes back to the period of Ponnambalam Ramanathan who attempted to integrate the Muslims into a wider Tamil community, arguing that the Muslims were but Tamils converted to Islam.

     

    Also, the political position of Muslim elites concerning their interests and aspirations directed the Muslims, who speak Tamil, to develop a distinct ethnic identity based on Islam. Besides, the Muslims have fears that a unified northern and eastern province or the ethnic Tamil state aspired to by Tamil nationalists would not protect the interests of the Muslims. This paved the way for what I call the security crisis.

     

    The Northern Muslims were expelled by the LTTE from Jaffna in October 1990. More than 100 Muslims from Kattankudy were killed inside a mosque on August 3, 1990, and land and properties of Muslims were robbed, particularly in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts. All of which goes to show that the irrational approach of the Tamil resistance movement towards the Muslims of the North and East was the key component of the Muslim frustration, and thus some (affected) Muslim youth eventually resorted to violence against the Tamils and joined the state security forces, either as low-level cadres or as informants.

     

    The question is, 'why did the Tamils target the Muslims?'

     

    One theory points to the collaboration of Muslim political leaders in the South with the Sinhala political class since the mid 1930s and '40s.

     

    The Muslim political class' outright rejection of the fifty-fifty demand, which was the brainchild of G. G. Ponnambalam, their deep distrust in S.J.V. Chelvanayakam's federal demand, their opposition to the separate state demand of the Tamil resistance movement contributed to the growth of Tamil anger towards the Muslims.

     

    Moreover, Muslim political leaders supported the Sinhala-only policy, and the subsequent university admission policies that were clearly detrimental to Tamil interests. During the 1983 riots, a Muslim Minister is said to have disgraced Islam by unleashing his thugs in central Colombo against the Tamils. The Muslims of the Eastern Province were alleged to have got together with the STF in terrorist exploits against the Tamils there.

     

    Why unity?

     

    Both the Tamils and the Muslims have been facing common challenges and problems. Since independence, the Sinhala politicians and leaders formulated policies aimed at weakening the interests and status of the minorities, and strengthening the unitary state structure, a kind of political symbol of the Sinhalese.

     

    The bottom line is that the minorities in Sri Lanka have some special problems. These problems are associated with the issues of identity and existence, and thus they need special solutions.

     

    The fact is that the problems of the minorities would not generate some reasonable attention and human solution from the Sinhala political class as long as these communities distrust one another.

    Towards unity

     

    Unity between the Tamils and the Muslims is the key to gain justice and peace from the Sinhala ruling class. However, ethnic reconciliation would not occur among the conflicting groups at the masses level unless attempts at elite level help build a bridge to increase confidence and trust both at masses and elites level.

     

    Tamil role

     

    The Tamils need to recognize the Muslims' desire to seek a non-Tamil identity. They must allay Muslim fears vis-à-vis the merger and power-sharing. LTTE initiatives such as an apology for Muslim expulsion from the Northern Province in 1990, and permission for resettlement, the return of the lands forcibly taken from the Eastern Muslims and negotiations with the Muslim civil society organizations such as North East Muslim Peace Assembly (NEMPA) could contribute to building some trust between the Tamils and Muslims. The Muslims of the East can overcome their fears to some extent if there is consistency in Tamil efforts to arrest Tamil domination.

     

    The Muslims of the North and East claim they have some special problems pertaining to their ethnic identity and security, and expect these issues to be discussed at the negotiating table by their own representatives with the major stakeholders -- the government and the LTTE. The point is that since the Muslims seek a non-Tamil ethnic identity, "they wish to be represented clearly and solely on the basis of their own interests whether or not those interests converge with the interests of the Government and the LTTE, and that is what they are asking for"

     

    Muslim role

     

    The Muslim politicians' demand for a separate representation at the peace negotiations has an ethnic logic. But that logic would not produce any political legitimacy when the Muslims refuse to give voice for a political solution that aims to go beyond the unitary state structure. The political choices and positions of the Muslims antagonized the Tamils. It is the responsibility of the Muslim politicians and activists not to feed the Muslim masses with ethnic hatred. They must build a civic political movement to demand power-sharing beyond the unitary state structure.

     

    The problems between the Muslims and the Tamils should be sorted out through a truth and reconciliation approach. Let each side acknowledge the wrongs done to the other. This is the necessary prelude to the reconciliation, without which ethnic harmony will never be restored. Let neither side think of itself purely as the victim of the other's action..

     

    Road to peace

     

    Both Tamil and Muslim groups are sensitive to their group symbols. These symbols work vigorously at the masses' level, particularly among the economically and socially weakened sections. The mission to weaken the energy of symbols is not impossible. This requires sincere human effort to seek a future of hope and amity, energy to vigorously challenge the nature of symbols that push members of the group to classify the ethnic and the religious 'others' as an enemy or bad group. These efforts should be backed by a truth and reconciliation process. In other words, the road to peace can be opened if the desire for harmony dominates among the subcultures both at elite and masses level.

     

     

  • Crime Without Punishment: The Strange Case of Colonel Karuna

    The trial, imprisonment and release of a former Tamil Tiger leader raises some tricky and potentially embarrassing questions for the British government. The former leader of the Tamil Tigers in the east of Sri Lanka Commander Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Colonel Karuna was arrested for travelling to the UK on a false passport in November 2007 and sentenced to 9 months in prison at the end of January 2008.

    He was released from prison on May 9 and transferred to an immigration detention centre. He was deported at the beginning of July having escaped charges of war crimes and human rights abuses committed in Sri Lanka.

    For the past 25 years the Tamil Tigers have been fighting for a homeland in what is now north and east Sri Lanka. During this time Karuna, proved himself to be an adept guerrilla leader. He quickly rose through the ranks of the Tigers to become Special Commander of the eastern region of the Tamil Eelam, in eastern Sri Lanka. Shortly after his promotion Karuna broke from the Tigers to form his own army, the Tamil People's Liberation Tigers.

    After switching sides he began to associate with members of the Sinhala establishment, the dominant ethnic group in Sri Lanka. Tamils allege that the association was so strong, and Karuna's army so important in the fight against the Tamil Tigers, that the Sri Lankan army and Special Forces aided his missions against the Tigers.

    Throughout this period Karuna has been accused of being behind some of the most abhorrent abuses of human rights in Sri Lanka. Amnesty UK alleges such abuses include torture, hostage taking, the use of child soldiers, and crimes against humanity.

     

    Human Rights Watch refers to Karuna as having a "long and horrific record of abuse", and claim he is "one of the worst human rights abusers ever to end up in custody in the UK". However, few Tamils believed he would become the first person to be successfully convicted in the UK for war crimes or human rights violations.

    Shortly after arriving in the UK Karuna was charged under Section 25 of the Identity Cards Act for the possession of a false identity document, but the circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment are shrouded with secrecy and intrigue, raising questions about the role and competency of the British government.

    At Isleworth Crown Court Karuna pleaded guilty to travelling on a fraudulent passport, but said he did so with the backing of the Sri Lankan government. Karuna's lawyer, David Philips, told the court that Karuna "entered the United Kingdom using a diplomatic passport ... it contained a six month multiple visit visa, issued at the British High Commission" in Colombo. "The Sri Lankan government gave him the passport and sent him to the United Kingdom" and it was the Sri Lankan Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, also the Prime Minister's brother, who organised it.

    He went on to say that Karuna did not go to the British High Commission to collect the documents and was merely following the instructions of the Sri Lankan government.

    Karuna's lawyer told me that none of Karuna's allegations were investigated, and no questions about them have been asked in Parliament. He went on to tell me that his attempts to investigate were met with closed doors and a "wall of silence".

    Despite Karuna's claims of a change of heart, his break with the Tigers was generally regarded as opportunistic. Very few sources are prepared to talk on the record about Karuna for political or safety reasons. However, Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, a prominent Tamil newspaper editor in Sri Lanka, and a friend of Karuna's when he was in the Tigers, explained that Karuna jumped before he was pushed. Karuna had allegedly embezzled money from the Tigers, infuriating their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. Karuna was a marked man.

    His relations with the Sri Lankan government did not fare much better. By 2007 it seemed that Karuna's usefulness to the government was beginning to ebb away. In June of that year, the editor of the Asia Tribune, K.T. Rajasingham, met with the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse and his Minister for Social Welfare, Douglas Devananda, in Geneva to discuss Sri Lankan affairs, including the "problem" of Karuna.

    The minutes of the meeting show Rajasingham's stance on Karuna: "Unfortunately, I supported Karuna thinking that though he started his career as a terrorist, he could be rehabilitated", made to respect human rights and be repositioned in the democratic mainstream of politics. He went on to explain that Karuna was a liability to the Sri Lankan government, "a spent force". Three years after leaving the Tigers, "he has no more real stories to narrate and will be of no use to anyone". Rajasingham's most chilling comment is that Karuna's former deputy and political rival Pillayan "is planning to arrest Karuna" but is hesitating due to opposition from the Defense Ministry. "I suggest the government get rid of Karuna, a liability and work with Pillayan and his men who are more popular in the east than Karuna".

    Pilliayan has since become the government's man in the east. Banda (not his real name), a Sinhala, and a Sri Lanka expert for a major international news organisation explains, on condition of anonymity, that, "due to fratricidal animosities between Karuna and Pillaiyan sought the help of the government to get out of the country".

    Karuna was, then, willingly removed from Sri Lanka, but given allegations of serious war crimes and human rights abuses hanging over him, it is unlikely that he could have wished British authorities to hear of his escape.

    In addition to Rajasingham's evidence, independent sources have confirmed that, as Karuna alleged in court, Sri Lankan officials helped him through the through the airport, bypassing customs, and delivering his passport to him onboard the plane.

    The British government seemed to have been convinced enough by Karuna's evidence to call the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the Foreign Office for an explanation. The Sri Lankan government has denied all allegations of assisting Karuna.

    The question is, however, if the Sri Lankan government wanted rid of Karuna why go through such a convoluted process? This is Sri Lanka after all, where disappearances are part of daily life. A number of explanations exist. Vithyatharan suggests that assassination or disappearance was out of the question, for it would have heralded a "victory for the Tigers".

    Banda explains that Karuna is considered something of a folk hero amongst the Sinhala community in Sri Lanka for turning the tide of the 25-year civil war against the Tigers. He is a "Sinhala hero, remember that. He's the one who helped the government army to chase Tigers off the East". Any obvious action against Karuna would have been deeply unpopular.

    It is highly probably that Karuna would not have been able to leave the country without the help of the Sri Lankan government. Visas from Sri Lanka, especially those issued for diplomatic passports, are not given out without government assurances that that application is genuine. Further, all persons entering and exiting embassies and high commissions, especially in war zones, are logged for security reasons. Although identity fraud is common in Sri Lanka it is rare for diplomatic passports to be forged.

    Karuna could not have picked up the passports himself. The journalist who broke the Karuna story in Sri Lanka for the Sunday Leader, Ranjith Jayasunderas, explains that British embassy officials he spoke to are "certain that his passport was delivered to them by regular Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry channels".

    The question remains, however, of the competence of the British High Commission in Colombo and perhaps even the Foreign Office. One British member of the European Parliament with an interest in Sri Lanka said, off the record, that the British government issued the visa "on the basis of support" from the Sri Lankan government, and was "stitched up by the Sri Lankan government" in a way that was "alarming to say the least".

    However, Karuna's face is rather well known in Sri Lanka and among the diplomatic community in Sri Lanka - at least as well known as Martin McGuinness's is in the UK. There is little chance that Britain's High Commission staff did not recognise Karuna's photo on the passport when issuing the visa. It would be remarkable if at least one official in the High Commission had not recognised Karuna's photograph.

    A senior British MP said, on condition of anonymity, that the "history of Tamil Tiger participants is that clearly there have been various covert and sanctioned exercises where individuals have left (Sri Lanka) over the years". "I guess that our man in Colombo and the Foreign Office and other governments would not find themselves in unknown territory to allow free passage".

    Banda suggested that the Foreign Office may have intervened on behalf of the Sri Lankan government to ensure Karuna's safe passage. "My contacts within the HC in Colombo didn't know this went through until it blew up they were not aware ... so it looks like someone high up was really involved".

    Whether or not they were, there have been few if any questions asked about the conduct of the High Commission staff. As Jayasunderas points out, "this need not have been Karuna. It could very well have been Bin Laden with plastic surgery, smuggled in by the Sri Lankan government. He would have gotten through just the same".

    The Home Office refused to comment on the case. The High Commissioner at the time, Dominck Chilcott, told me that the questions raised here are "all very good" but that he cannot comment on the matter.

    Perhaps the most disappointing element of the debacle, especially for human rights activists, was the inaction of the British government when they may have had the opportunity of securing a conviction of an alleged war criminal.

    Both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch petitioned the UK government and the Metropolitan police to charge Karuna but the case was not pursued. Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International's expert on the case, claims that there was a collection of evidence from NGOs presented to the Metropolitan police, including a large number of credible cases of human rights abuse.

    Human Rights Watch has gathered considerable evidence of Karuna's role in human rights abuses, including the abduction of children to serve as child soldiers, in the form of case studies, witness statements, maps and photographs. Evidence gathered by the Norwegian Sri Lanka Monitoring Project and UNICEF confirm the allegations. UNICEF alone has documented evidence of more than 200 cases of child soldier recruitment by Karuna's militia.

    Amnesty is unhappy that despite the quantity of evidence, the police sent only a limited number of cases to the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS says it dropped the case because it felt the information presented by the Met was insufficient. It says there was "insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for any criminal offences in the UK".

    The reasons for the lack of evidence presented to the Crown Prosecution Service are still unknown. The Guardian made a freedom of information request, which was not fruitful. The Met have failed to respond to letters from Amnesty and the chair of Parliament's Sri Lanka Group, Andy Love, attempted to find out more from the Home Office, but it refused to divulge details of the case.

    "The claim about lack of evidence seems spurious" Chandra Sriram, the director of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict told me. The real issue for Sriram given the abundance of available evidence against Karuna "is the absence of political will to carry a case forward".

    "The British government blew it," says Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's Asia director. Adams accuses the government as a whole for the failure to prosecute, from the police to the Home Office. The police and CPS seemed not to understand who they had and lacked the resources to pursue the case. For Adams, the government's stated commitment to human rights is "not matched by its actions".

    Amnesty's Yolanda Foster told me, "We are very disappointed that the UK government did not pursue the case". "There were very serious allegations made against Karuna but he has been returned to Sri Lanka where there is a culture of impunity". Amnesty is concerned that Sri Lankans who did come forward now face retaliation.

    Having now been deported, Karuna's fate in Sri Lanka remains uncertain. Whilst some who know him, including his lawyer, are impressed by his "fierce loyalty", others believe that suspicion and in-fighting may spell the end of Karuna one way or another.

    The Tamil People's Liberation Tigers's political wing, the United People's Freedom Alliance contested and won elections in the former Tiger strongholds in the east earlier this year.

    Although the victory was tainted by claims of intimidation and fraud, leading to the withdrawal of the largest Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance party, the result has been accepted by the government.

    Sri Lankan media have reported that Karuna has been reinstated as the leader of his party, leaving activists to bemoan a missed opportunity for the British government to show its commitment to human rights.

    Karuna's was, however, a pyrrhic victory, for in his absence his rival Pillayan was offered the post of Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council. Just in time to meet the British Foreign Office minister, Lord Malloch-Brown during his four-day visit to Sri Lanka. Karuna remains on the sidelines.

    Karuna still has many enemies, both among Tamils and Sinhala. His fate hinges on his continued worth to the Sri Lankan government. The only certainties are that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka will continue to deteriorate and ordinary Sri Lankans will continue to suffer.

     

    Dr. Lee Salter is a lecturer in Journalism and Media Studies at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

  • Pirapaharan pays homage to Thileepan on 21st anniversary

    Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) paid homage to Lt. Col. Thileepan on Monday at an undisclosed location in Vanni, when the Tigers commenced to mark the 21st death anniversary of Thileepan's fast to death campaign, according to LTTE officials in Vanni.

    Lt.Col.Thileepan (Rasaiah Parthipan), fasted unto death in a twelve days' campaign putting forward five demands to the Indian government to meet the aspirations of the Tamil people, soon after the signing of the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement in 1987 when the Indian army was in occupation of Jaffna and most parts of the northeast.

    Lt. Col. Thileepan began his fasting, without food and water, on 15 September 1987 in front of the Nalloor Kandasamy temple and he passed away on September 26, 1987.

  • Vavuniya Attack – A Success

    Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) claimed that their Black Tigers destroyed the Radar installation inside Sri Lankan military's Vanni headquarters at 3:05 a.m. on 09 September, Tuesday. Thereafter, Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) aircrafts and Col. Kittu Artillery formation targeted the Sri Lankan Vanni HQ with the coordination of the Black Tigers, successfully carrying out the operation, the Tigers said, adding that the LTTE aircrafts safely returned to their bases after completing their mission. The communication facility with its tower, engineering facility, anti-aircraft weapon and the ammunition store at the Sri Lankan base were completely destroyed, the LTTE said.

    The Vanni headquarters of the Sri Lankan forces and the headquarters of the Sri Lanka Army Special Forces (SF) for Vanni sustained heavy destruction in the attack, the Tiger statement issued in Tamil further said.

    More than 20 Sri Lankan troopers were killed and many sustained critical injuries, the Tigers claimed.

    10 LTTE Black Tigers laid down their lives in the special operation.

    Lt. Col. Mathiyazhaki, Major Aananthi, Captain Kanimathi, Captain Muththunakai, Captain Arivuththamizh, Lt. Col. Vinothan, Major Nilakaran, Captain Ezhilazhakan, Captain Akilan and Captain Nimalan were the Black Tigers, the LTTE statement said    .

  • Vavuniya attack: How it happened and why

    Barely two weeks after their foray into Eastern Naval Area Headquarters in Trincomalee, Air Tigers showed up again.

     

    This time they were an integral part of a pre-dawn LTTE ground and artillery assault, on Tuesday, September 11 on the sprawling Security Forces Headquarters - Wanni (SFHQ - W) complex located in Vavuniya.


    The defining moments of the attack on this garrison, the northernmost under Government control in mainland Sri Lanka, came thrice in regular intervals of six to seven minutes. First, a group of Tigers infiltrated the area near the Air Force radar unit to spark off a ground battle. Then artillery and mortar shells began to rain. Thereafter, two Czech-built Zlin Z-143 aircraft appeared over the skies to drop bombs.

     

    If sparks lit up the night sky over Vavuniya, vibrations caused by the bombardment shook the doors and windows of many homes. This was in a vast area surrounding this key town, the northernmost in mainland Sri Lanka under Government control. For decades now, Vavuniya has been the gateway to the Wanni where until recently vast stretches of land were dominated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Military offensives in the past months have seen security forces regain control of large stretches, mostly west of the A-9 highway and some east of it as periodically reported in The Sunday Times.

     

    Within minutes of news of the attack reaching Colombo, everyone who is someone in the country's defence and security establishment was out of their beds. Whilst officials clasped their phones to receive updates, security forces top brass were busy with their respective operations rooms. Minute-by-minute feedbacks were reaching Colombo as the mayhem continued for some five and half hours.

     

    It all began minutes before 3 a.m. Some 14 Tigers infiltrated the Army sector by traversing through private property. This is at a relatively thin stretch, soon after the main entrance, before the complex expands to a much larger ground area. They wore fatigues resembling the Army. They were walking past buildings occupied by two different battalions of the Army's crack Special Forces. It is here that the gun battles broke out. Three female cadres blasted themselves using the 'suicide kits' they wore. Another committed suicide by biting a cyanide phial. Others edged forward to fire their assault rifles and Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) at the Indira II radar installed on a knoll or a small hill.

     

    The radar was damaged and two Indian maintenance technicians - A.K. Thakur and Chinthamani Rant - sustained injuries. They were later driven to Anurahdapura and airlifted to Colombo. Another Indira II to replace the radar that was damaged was hurriedly moved by the Air Force on the same day from their main base at Katunayake. The aim of the Tigers was to destroy the Vavuniya air defence radar, the one that was usually the first to locate any LTTE aircraft that is airborne from the Wanni. By moving a replacement Tuesday evening, the Air Force denied the LTTE any freedom of movement over the air in the Wanni theatre without being detected.

     

    Four Indira II radars (named after late Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi) were gifted to Sri Lanka. This was after it became known that the LTTE had acquired air capability by procuring Zlin Z-143 light aircraft in 2005. Radars are used to detect aircraft, vehicles, ships or other objects through the transmission of electromagnetic waves, which are reflected back by the object. A 2-D radar gives distance and direction whilst 3-D radar would also

    provide the (height) or altitude in the case of aircraft.

     

    The Air Force area that was under attack lay near the Army's 211 Brigade. Also located in the same vicinity are the second and third battalions of the Special Forces. There is no doubt the Tigers would have carried out months and months of surveillance piecing together all the information about this target they were to attack. They would have also practised with sand models to prepare their cadres before launching last Tuesday's attack.

     

    This was much the same as the land and air attack on the Air Force base in Anuradhapura on October 22, last year. However, it appears that the Tigers may have either not known or failed to take into consideration the presence of the Special Forces (SF) troops in the area they infiltrated. The measures the SF adopted to protect their troops and installations evidently took the attackers by complete surprise. Besides those who committed suicide, SF troops shot dead within a short time the majority of the Tigers who had infiltrated and planned to wreak further havoc.

     

    Within six to seven minutes of the ground attack, heavy artillery and mortars began to fall in the same area. Highly placed security sources said the Tigers had shifted two 130 mm artillery guns to an area closer to Puliyankulam, located a few kilometres away from the LTTE checkpoint at Omanthai. Mortars had been fired from locations nearby. These guns had been used earlier from the general area of Pooneryn to periodically direct artillery fire at the Security Forces Headquarters in Jaffna. There were occasions when such attacks forced the Air Force to call off temporarily all military and civilian flights to Palaly.

     

    Police later learnt that a Tiger cadre atop a tree and carrying a walkie-talkie gave directions to their artillery gunners to fine tune their targets in the area.

     

    The same sources said the Army directed counter artillery fire destroying one LTTE artillery gun. However, independent verification of this claim is not possible.

     

    The Tigers had fired some 70 to 80 heavy artillery rounds during the pre-dawn attack. Later, on Tuesday afternoon two more rounds fell on the military complex. This was when troops were on a clearing operation within the area as well as ahead of their defended localities.

     

    Another six to seven minutes later, two Air Tiger Zlin Z-143 aircraft were over the military complex. First reports said they dropped eight bombs - four near the Air Force installations on the relatively narrow stretch of land just after the main entrance. The other four had been dropped on the large area that encompasses many buildings including administrative blocks of the SFHQ-W. Three had not exploded. Investigations thereafter have raised doubts on the number that exploded, whether it was only three or less and whether only five or six bombs were dropped.

     

    The ground, artillery and air attack had begun just before 3 a.m. Tuesday. Within an hour it had ended. However, the search operations for more possible LTTE infiltrators continued until 7.30 a.m. It is only thereafter that the damage caused and the casualty counts became clear.

     

    Initial reports to the media by Army officials said bodies of ten Tiger cadres, including five females, were found within the military complex. As this news spread worldwide, the LTTE repeated the same figure in a news release. Their idea was to hide the exact number of cadres who were assigned to carry out the attack. Later on Tuesday, another male Tiger cadre’s body was found bringing the LTTE death toll to 11.

     

    Preliminary investigations by the Police revealed that 14 Tigers entered the military complex and three later got away. They left behind assault rifles, RPGs, grenades, communication sets, a machine gun, a global positioning system, ammunition, chocolates among other items.

     

    The 14 Tigers who took part in the attack Police believe is in addition the one who was atop a tree serving as a forward observer to direct artillery fire. This is not the first time the LTTE had juggled with numbers to give the impression that all their cadres assigned for attacks had been killed.

     

    They did so during the attack on the Air Force base in Anuradhapura. Last Tuesday's attack is no exception.

     

    Thirteen soldiers, a civilian attached to the Army and a policeman were killed at the scene. Another police officer died at the Vavuniya hospital bringing the death toll to 16. Those wounded were: Army 24, Air Force 7 and Police 9.

     

    The Sri Lanka Air Force claimed later on Tuesday that one of its Chinese built F-7 interceptor jets had destroyed one of the Air Tiger aircraft. Two officers of the Air Force, a security source said, were on hand at last Wednesday's National Security Council meeting to provide a brief on how the attack occurred.

     

    Though the Air Force has no pictorial evidence either of the attack or the debris of the destroyed aircraft on the ground, an Air Force source told The Sunday Times "the pilot activated the firing mechanism only after his on board radar locked on the target. That was how the air-to-air missile was discharged. Thereafter, when he was taking a turn, he saw a huge ball of fire some 600 metres away." The source claimed the missile would not have been released automatically if the lock-in mechanism did not home in on the target.

     

    However, the LTTE said its aircraft had "returned safely." Independent verification of both claims is not possible.

    The attack on Vavuniya military complex has once again highlighted the woefully inadequate measures to ensure perimeter security in military installations.

     

    Like during the attack on the Air Force base at Anuradhapura, the Tigers succeeded in infiltrating a major headquarters complex. With that, directing artillery fire and using aircraft primitive compared to the assets of the Air Force, they succeeded in creating an impact as they came under heavy pressure on the battlefronts in the Wanni.

     

    [Edited]

  • Perpetual War

    It is widely held these days that Sri Lanka’s conflict has reached a ‘decisive’ stage. This pronouncement turns on the belief that the Sinhala armed forces are on the verge of destroying the Liberation Tigers, whereupon the Colombo government would impose a ‘solution’ that the Tamils will simply have to accept. ‘Peace’ is thus close. As ever, we opt not to join the armchair military analysts that are legion Sri Lanka in predicting the future of the battlefield. However, we can confidently assert both that Sri Lanka will not see peace in the foreseeable future and that the Tamil liberation struggle is being reinforced by the very dynamics held to be destroying it. Recognizing that such views are considered by many to be laughably optimistic, if not foolish, our case follows.

     

    Before that, it is worth noting that the demise of the LTTE has been pronounced many times before in the past three decades; in the mid-eighties when the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was starving and blasting the surrounded Jaffna peninsula, in 1987 when the Indian military began its offensive – projected to last three days – to disarm the LTTE, in 1995 when the SLA attacked and occupied Jaffna city and in 1997 when it pursued the LTTE into the Vanni. In all these instances, the self-evident end of the LTTE was based on two things: the overwhelming firepower it was faced with and the hopelessness of its situation made clear by the changing map. In this context, we suggest that analysis without all the facts is mere speculation and that neither the strategy nor the capacity of the LTTE are any more discernible today than they were in 1985, 1987, 1995 or 1997. (We realize, of course, that few non-Tamils credit the LTTE with any strategic foresight).

     

    More importantly, we point out – yet again - that the Tamil armed struggle emerged in the context of inexorably rising Tamil outrage and hostility towards the successive Sinhala regimes that have systematically persecuted the Tamils – politically, culturally, linguistically and economically – and unleashed regular bouts of (first non-state and then state) violence against them. The support for Tamil Eelam since the seventies and – separately – support for the LTTE’s armed struggle are thus a direct consequence of Sinhala oppression via the mechanisms of the state. We suggest that Sri Lanka’s ethnic tensions are a consequence, not of under- or uneven development, but of chauvinistic state policies and practices which are loathed by the Tamils and, just as importantly, enthusiastically endorsed by the Sinhalese. Thus, with the Tamils facing with the demonstrable impossibility of securing equality by non-violent means, Tamil militancy (what the Sinhalese and the West call terrorism) is here to stay. In that sense, the cycle of oppression and resistance in Sri Lanka is no different to that in Palestine, say, or other parts of the world today. (There was a time when the destruction of the PLO was deemed the way to end the matter.)

     

    Thus, the crucial factor in deciding whether ‘Sri Lanka’ will be at peace is whether Tamils and Sinhalese can coexist peacefully in the post-colonial state. In the past few years, the ethnic polarization that has underpinned the practices of the state has become especially acute. In that sense, it is worth remembering even after the economic chaos of 2001, most Sinhalese voted for the warlike SLFP and even with the Muslims, Upcountry Tamils and those Tamils outside the Northeast voting for the ‘pro-peace’ UNP, the party barely scrapped into power. This truth was there for those who cared to look, even though it suited all, including the Tamils, to pretend otherwise. Unfortunately, even making believe that the UNP had a ‘peace mandate’ couldn’t produce the inter-ethnic harmony that the international liberal peace-builders swore was waiting to erupt.

     

    In that sense, the naïve faith that many Tamils had placed in the liberal forces of the international community has been thoroughly dispelled now. This week, for example, the European Union was once again anxious to reassure the Rajapakse government – the most openly chauvinist Sinhala regime of the past three decades – that they were keen to continue with business as normal. The relentless tide of extra-judicial killings and ‘disappearances’, the franchising of local governance to paramilitary sovereigns in the Northeast, the ethnic cleansing of non-Sinhalese (that the Muslims, to their alarm, are also suffering) and the naked chauvinism of the state are apparently no impediment to the arch-liberal EU.

     

    In short, at no time before has the Tamils’ uniting sense of perilous isolation been more clearly delineated. This, moreover, is a consequence of the actions of the international community as well as the Sinhala state that it is supporting. This is why the wave of popular nationalism spreading through the Tamils – most palpable amongst the Diaspora – is serving to close ranks and swell support for Tamil Eelam and, consequently, the LTTE. The point here is that, for those who look beyond the maps of battlefield to the ‘root causes’ of war or the ‘foundations’ of peace, it should be clear where the island is headed.

  • India betrays Tamils by providing military personnel to Sri Lanka - Vaiko

    Referring to the news that two Indian radar operators were wounded Tuesday when the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) attacked the Vanni Headquarters of the Sri Lankan military, Vaiko, the General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), in a letter sent on Thursday, September 11, to the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, said that the Indian Government was "caught red handed in its unpardonable betrayal" of involving Indian military personnel in Sri Lanka's "genocidal war" against the Tamils. He blamed the top level bureaucrats in India, particularly the national security adviser, for "clandestinely conspiring" with the Sri Lankan government.

    Mr. Vaiko urged the Indian Prime Minister to immediately withdraw and call back the Indian technicians and military personnel from Sri Lanka.

    He charged that, according to the information he had, there was a large number of Indian technocrats and military personnel, up to 265 persons, were fully engaged and assisting the Sri Lankan military.

     

    "With unbearable agony and resentment I am pained to condemn, in no uncertain terms, the atrocious involvement of Indian military personnel and the technical engineers, in the genocidal brutal attacks of the Sri Lankan armed forces against the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka," Mr. Vaiko said in his letter to the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

    The UPA government at the centre in India, immediately after its formation, more or less finalised a defence pact with Sri Lanka. Vaiko's MDMK, which was in the UPA, opposed the move. After Vaiko presented a detailed memorandum in person to Dr. Manmohan Singh, he dropped the move to go ahead with the defence pact.

    "But the top level bureaucrats, particularly the national security adviser, clandestinely conspired with the Sri Lankan Government to supply air force radars and military hardware to Sri Lanka," Mr. Vaiko charged.

    "I met you in person and pleaded with you not to extend any military help to Sri Lanka but all my pleadings, sorry to say, were thrown into the dust-bin."

    "In my previous letters, I have already accused that India is giving all military aid and soft loan to strengthen her sinful and vicious hands to decimate the Tamils," he noted.

    "In the wee hours after midnight a 8th September 2008 LTTE launched an arial attack also the ground attack against the Sri Lankan military head quarters in vanni areas. In this attack LTTE air force planes have destroyed the Sri Lankan air force radar system which was provided and built by India, and two Indian military Engineers, I.A.K.Tagore, Chinthamani Raut, have been seriously wounded."

    "Now the Indian Government is caught red handed in its unpardonable betrayal against the Tamils."

    "The Indian Government without an iota of humanism refused to send food and medicines collected in Tamil Nadu to enable the International Red Cross Society to provide solace to the suffering Tamils," he further blamed.

    "I would urge upon the Indian Govt. to withdraw and call back the technicians and military personnel from Sri Lanka and stop forthwith any sort of military assistance direct or indirect."          

  • India sidelined in Lankan war

    The current scenario in Sri Lanka has a striking resemblance to situation prior to the Indian intervention in 1987. The economic blockade on north and east coupled with all out war against the LTTE with no regard to the plight of the civilians caught in the quagmire, pitch forked India into the centre stage of the island nation's ethnic conflict.

     

    The consequent Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, induction of IPKF to take on the Tigers and subsequent withdrawal under humiliating circumstances is all history. With over 200,000 internally displaced in the Tiger dominated areas and hundreds of thousands of others cut off from the rest of the world, history is repeating itself.

     

    Alas, for a variety of reasons and changed geo-political realities of the globe, New Delhi is a staunch ally of the Rajapaksa regime in its war against LTTE. The hands off Sri Lanka policy pursued by New Delhi, with a modicum of neutrality, since the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 stands abandoned.

     

    The Indian position in Sri Lanka is no different at least theoretically from that of Pakistan, the frontline state of the United States in its war against al Queda and terrorism in Afghanistan. India has little or no say in the conflict management related issues.

     

    The role of New Delhi is reduced to that of a supplier of weapons and provider of material and moral support. Its pleas for meaningful simultaneous political initiatives along with no holds barred fight against the Tigers for resolution of the ethnic conflict have fallen on deaf ears.

     

    With the verdict of the Sri Lanka Supreme Court in October 2006 de-merging the north and east and refusal of the government to make any move towards re-merger the fig leaf of Indian factor in the form of the 1987 Accord vanished into thin air. By holding election to the eastern province in May 2008 against the wishes of India, the Sri Lanka government consigned the accord to the dustbin of history.

     

    Forget about larger issues, the Sri Lanka government has defied polite Indian request to re-open the A-9 highway sealed off since second week of August 2006. The highway is the only link to the Jaffna peninsula, home to an estimated 6.5 lakh Tamils.

     

    The loss of face in Sri Lanka for India is not just political. The geo-strategic interests of New Delhi, one of the key factors which drove the Indian Lanka policy, are at maximum stake since the island nation gained independence in 1948.

     

    China and Pakistan are developing constituencies in Sri Lanka at a pace which has left India dumb struck. Beijing with its deep pockets has set its eyes on some of the strategic projects in the island nation like the Hambantota harbour project. Islamabad is sticking to its traditional and time tested methods of appeal through religion targeting the 8 per cent Muslim population in the country though there is no evidence as yet of its strategy paying dividends.

     

    India, which fancies itself as the United States of South Asia, quietly acquiesced when Colombo in March 2007 signed on dotted lines of the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement authored by Washington. ACSA allows US war and civilian's ships and planes re-fuelling facilities in the island nation. It is true that the US has similar pacts with 90 other countries and New Delhi itself is expected sooner than later to join the ACSA club. But the fact is India in the past had assiduously opposed such an agreement invoking its special geo-strategic interests in Sri Lanka.

     

    It must be said to be credit of all-powerful Sri Lanka President that he and his government have mastered the art of pitting one world capital against the other. It is practiced with ease if not finesse with great rewards.

     

    When he wants attention of New Delhi, the President or his administration dials Beijing and Islamabad and vice-a-versa. The mighty super power is no exception. A highly publicised visit of Rajapaksa to Tehran early in 2008 instantly resulted in goodies from Washington. The CIA emerged as the chief campaign manager of Sri Lanka in painting LTTE as more dangerous than al Queda.

     

    The Rajapaksa's village logic has so far worked wonders. So petrified is New Delhi at the prospect of Beijing or Islamabad consolidating their grip in the island nation that in the last two years India has given in to every whim and fancy of the Rajapaksa government.

     

    The two Indian technicians, who were injured in the latest aerial attack on the Sri Lanka Air Force Vavunia air base, best illustrate the point. The technicians, part of a team deployed by India to help Sri Lanka guard its skies from the newly acquired Tiger aerial nuisance value, are on deputation to service and maintain the radar gifted by India.

     

    Despite the gesture, the theme song of the Sri Lanka defense establishment since the Tiger air wing surfaced in March 2007 is that New Delhi is responsible for the Tiger aerial attacks as it has prevented the island nation from acquiring a superior 3-D radar system from China!

     

    The knee-jerk responses of New Delhi to virtual encirclement of India by China and its allies amount to ridiculous to comic relief. It was best exemplified on June 1 when the Indian National Security Advisor, foreign secretary and defence secretary descended in Colombo on an unannounced visit and spent two days meeting all those who matter.

     

    Inquiries reveal that never in the history of post-independent India have the trio journeyed to a foreign country together. The ostensible reason for the high powered delegation visit was `security arrangements' for the prime minister at the SAARC Summit scheduled on August 1 and 2. It is not known since when the three highest policy making executives of India have been burdened with responsibility of nitty-gritty of PM's security drill.

     

    The real reason for the mission became evident later when India took charge of air space of Sri Lanka and positioned two war ships in the Lankan territorial waters in the name of security during stay of Dr Manmohan Singh in Colombo.

     

    From which quarters in the island nation did New Delhi perceive threat to the life of the prime minister? Fingers were pointed at the LTTE. Yes, desperate Tigers could go to any length but could they afford to target the Indian prime minister particularly after they badly burnt their bridges with India post-Rajiv killing.

     

    Again apparently it is for the first time India had resorted to such an extraordinary measure of virtual take over a sovereign nation hosting a multilateral conference.

     

    As per Indian diplomats there is an instance when New Delhi took over the security of Mozambique, at the request of the local government, to enable it hold an international meeting. The comedy in Colombo was compounded following intelligence at lower levels about Pakistan moving its own war ship. It proved to be a false alarm. It was a case of a Pakistani dredger from China sailing through the Sri Lankan international waters!

     

    The National Security Advisor lent his brand of comic touch to the SAARC Summit by jumping into a police vehicle without waiting for his assigned car after the inaugural ceremony, only to be stopped at four check points, in his quest to reach the hotel where Dr Singh was staying.

     

    It is difficult to believe that India took over Sri Lanka albeit for over 60 hours to ward off threat from the LTTE. The move was directed more at Beijing and Islamabad.

     

    Perhaps it was an assertion of its natural right over Sri Lanka and a rather loud message to all concerned to tread cautiously in the Sri Lankan territory. No one is impressed with such bravado bordering on gun-boat diplomacy. Perhaps the Indian establishment do not subscribe to the thesis that un-exhibited power is more potent.

     

    N-powered India is clearly mistaken in its assumption that the threat to its geo-strategic interests would halt with such unbridled exhibition of muscle. Innovative diplomacy and statesmanship with no nonsense approach is the need of the hour.

     

    (edited)

  • Humanitarian disaster warns NGO head

    The director of an Australian non-governmental organisation (NGO) has warned of a humanitarian disaster in the war zones of Sri Lanka in the absence of foreign aid workers.

     

    The extreme humanitarian situation of Internally Displaced Persons, including thousands of children, who are already malnourished, would deteriorate dramatically as clean water is not available for all the IDPs and they have been deprived of medicine by the Sri Lankan government, said Executive Director Paul O'Callaghan of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID).

     

    ACFIOD has had 25 member organisations working in Sri Lanka over many decades.

     

    Mr. O'Callaghan expressed fear of a blood bath as foreign aid workers of UN agencies and NGOs packed their bags following the orders by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to leave the Vanni region.

     

    "Apart from the direct military conflict we would expect that many, many people will die or be in extreme circumstances if humanitarian workers are not able to access this area," Mr. O'Callaghan told Australia's ABC Radio last week, after Colombo's decision to exclude foreign workers.

     

    According to UN estimates, 40% of all children in the North are currently malnourished and don't have access to any prospect of food, he noted.

     

    In response to the Sri Lankan government’s statement that it did not want to see a repeat of the 2006 massacre of 17 local aid workers employed by French agency Action Contre La Faim, Mr O'Callaghan said the circumstances of that incident were never clear.

     

    He reiterated that by clearing Tamil areas of foreign aid agencies, the Sri Lankan government is also ensuring no independent sources exist to comment on ground realities.

     

    "If you exclude all foreign humanitarian workers then you won't have any, not only the immediate support for those communities but also those who can actually see what's happening on the ground," he said.

     

    Accusing the government of having received the highest number of complaints of any government in the United Nations Human Rights Commission over recent years, O'Callaghan said Sri Lanka had as result been reviewed recently by the commission.

     

    In response, the government had made commitments to the commission only a few weeks ago to protect civilians.

     

    "[Sri Lanka] undertook at that point to make special efforts to ensure that the situation for citizens who are not involved in the conflict would be taken care of, and that those citizens would be able to be safe and obtain food and water and medicine and so on," he told ABC Radio Australia.

     

    He added that it is worrying to see the government’s change in policy after only recently pledging to protect civilians.

     

    "So this does worry us - that we could see very quickly a very large scale disaster occurring, quite apart if you like from what the civil war is directly involved in," he concluded.

     

    ACFID is an independent national association of Australian NGOs working in the field of international aid and development.

     

    Paul O'Callaghan, who is the Executive Director of ACFID, also serves on the Foreign Minister’s Aid Advisory Council, is a member of the National Nonprofit Roundtable and the Australian Collaboration and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

     

    While in government (1982–2000), he served as Australia’s High Commissioner in Samoa (1997–2000) and had earlier diplomatic appointments in Malaysia and Thailand.

  • United Nations agencies pull out of Wanni…

    The Tamil Tigers last week accused the government of planning a genocidal campaign against Tamils as UN agencies began pulling out of the LTTE-held Vanni regions in the island's north

     

    The United Nations pulled its staff out of the LTTE-held northern region after being ensured safe passage by government troops and the Tamil Tigers.

     

    Other aid agencies have also left, after being initially prevented from doing so by displaced people.

     

    Residents had gathered outside the offices of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme on 12 September in an effort to prevent the pullout, demanding that the agencies stay behind and continue their humanitarian work for the Vanni people facing a humanitarian crisis.

     

    The agencies' move comes as the army continues a major offensive against the LTTE in northern areas of the island.

     

    The government ordered aid workers out of the north earlier this month saying they could not guarantee their safety.

     

    Kilinochchi is the town where aid agencies in the north have been based.

     

    A convoy of some 20 vehicles carrying UN and other staff set off from the town on 16 September travelling south along the A9 highway. Later the convoy arrived in Omantai town in government-controlled territory.

     

    UN spokesman in Colombo Gordon Weiss said a total of 40 UN staff had now pulled out. Some local employees had decided to stay.

     

    "We are pulling out reluctantly" because of aerial bombing and artillery shelling, he told the BBC Tamil service.

     

    A spokesman for the Roman Catholic aid agency, Caritas, said that it was "not possible to get the church out of the north" and its staff would remain.

     

    UN agencies say at least 160,000 people have been displaced in the past few months in the districts of Mullaittivu and Kilinochchi. Some 70,000 people have fled due to fighting in the past two months alone.

     

    Leaflets have been dropped urging them to move out, but Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) noted that there is little evidence that civilians have been able to move to safety.

     

    According to the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, 11 UN and other agencies have been working in the Vanni area.

     

    Colombo wants to avoid troops being accused of killing aid workers in a repeat of the August 2006 massacre of 17 local employees of the French aid agency Action Against Hunger in the east of the island.

     

    Meanwhile, MSF expressed concern about the possible consequences of ongoing hostilities for the population still living in the area, and the impact of displacement on the health of the population.

     

    The organisation urged both parties to the conflict to ensure that all possible measures are taken to protect civilians from the impact of the conflict, and to allow assistance to resume as soon as possible.

     

    Apart from potential exposure to shelling and bombardment, those who have been forced to leave their homes lack adequate shelter, sanitation facilities and access to clean drinking water, the organisation noted.

     

    “The potentially serious health impact will only be worsened by the arrival of the rainy season begins in roughly a month's time. Existing hospitals and clinics have also been affected by the fighting, and though the system is compensating for the moment, if the situation is prolonged there will be serious shortages of medicines and supplies, as well as qualified medical staff,” MSF noted.

     

    “MSF is prepared to return to Kilinochchi as soon as possible,” the organisation said, adding that in the mean time, “the withdrawal should not affect programmes in other parts of Sri Lanka's conflict-affected north, including Vavuniya, Point Pedro in the Jaffna peninsula, and Mannar”.

     

    The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is being allowed to remain in the area. It operates a checkpoint between government and LTTE-held territory.

     

    The government does not allow independent reporters into conflict areas, and many lines of communication to the north have been cut.  

  • … but Sri Lanka says Ban-Ki Moon helping LTTE

    Sri Lanka’s hardline government criticised United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for expressing deep concern about Tamil civilians in the Vanni region. 

     

    Sri Lankan human rights ministry official Rajiva Wijesinghe told reporters that there were no civilian casualties in the Colombo government’s ongoing offensive and that the UN Chief’s comments were helping the LTTE.

    "The secretary general expresses his deep concern over the increased hostilities in northern Sri Lanka, and the grave humanitarian consequences for civilians," UN press office said in a statement released on Wednesday, September 10, in New York.

     

    The statement came as Colombo told all local and international relief workers, including UN and Red Cross staff, to vacate the region within a week, saying the order was for their own safety.

     

    “In light of the [Sri Lankan] Government’s request for the relocation of UN humanitarian staff in affected areas, he (Ban Ki-moon) reminds all concerned of their responsibility to take active steps to ensure the safety and freedom of movement of civilians, allowing humanitarian organisations to do their work in safety, as well as to reach persons affected by the fighting who need humanitarian assistance,” the statement said.

    "The Secretary-General reminds all concerned of their obligations under international humanitarian law, especially in regard to the principle of proportionality and the selection of targets," the statement also said.

    Sri Lanka’s government, which customarily bristles at foreign criticism of its military’s human rights record, flatly rejected the UN Secretary General’s comments.

    “Since there have been hardly any civilian casualties during the recent offensives in Sri Lanka, it is possible that the Secretary General was prompted by reports of large numbers of civilian casualties in other theatres of war, which misled him into believing that all forces fighting terrorism are alike,” Wijesinghe said.

    “It is to be hoped however that, even while he might want to send a message to other countries, he will study the Sri Lankan situation carefully in the future. Perhaps, with knowledge there will come wisdom, and he will publicly acknowledge the extraordinarily good record of the Sri Lankan forces in this regard, their careful selection of military targets, the paucity of even collateral damage,” Wijesinghe said.

    "Unfortunately, the secretary general may not have realised that his remarks could be used to advantage by the LTTE, who will use any weapon to hand, including an innocent secretary general, to halt the advance of Sri Lankan forces," Wijesinghe said in a statement.

    He said the LTTE "will relish that he made these remarks".

    According to UN agencies, at least 160 000 people have been displaced in the past few months in the LTTE-held districts of Mullaittivu and Kilinochchi. More than 70 000 people have fled due to fighting in the past two months alone.          

  • IDPs facing humanitarian nightmare

    Aid workers fear uprooted civilians in the north of Sri Lanka could become trapped without enough assistance as fighting intensifies between government forces and LTTE.

     

    All relief agency personnel, except local staff from the area and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) left LTTE Vanni.on September 9, after the Sri Lankan government ordered United Nations and international non-governmental organisations to move out of LTTE-held areas in the north, saying it could not guarantee their safety.

     

    The withdrawal has raised questions about the fate of the 167,000 people who have been displaced in the LTTE-controlled districts of Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi since a shaky truce began collapsing in April 2006, most of whom are sheltering in welfare centres.

     

    "The most pressing concern is the plight of the innocent civilians who are trapped in the region and are unable to leave," said an aid officer who declined to be named. "It is the duty of all parties to ensure that these people are given freedom of movement to allow them to move to places of safety."

     

    In the last three months alone, between 70,000 and 85,000 people have fled their homes as the military pushed into the LTTE territory in the north. The potential humanitarian consequences of civilians being unable to escape fighting in the war zone are enormous, aid workers told AlertNet.

     

    The government has indicated it is prepared for up to 200,000 people to come to Vavuniya, behind the front lines. But aid agencies say there have been no organised efforts to move displaced civilians in Vanni to safer areas.

     

    Even if they reach Vavuniya, it is unclear whether camps will be independently monitored or whether the displaced will be able to move freely, aid workers warn.

     

    The president has said the relocation of most international agencies from the north is a temporary measure. Yet amid uncertainty over when they will be allowed to return, there are concerns over food security, shelter, water and sanitation, and freedom of movement for the displaced population.

     

    Already continuous heavy fighting, including aerial bombardments, in areas close to Kilinochchi town has prompted many to move again, according to the United Nations.

     

    "From our point of view, the trauma of all this for children, to study in an environment where war is going on, is not helpful," said Menaca Calyaneratne, head of communications for Save the Children Sri Lanka.

     

    "For the people as well as the children, the psychological effects will have to be addressed, and addressed very urgently."

     

    Save the Children, which has pulled out staff to Vavuniya, said at least 30,000 schoolchildren are among the displaced.

     

    In response to the growing fears, Jeevan Thiagarajah, executive director of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, an association of relief groups, told AlertNet there are structures in place to take care of civilians following the withdrawal of most international aid agencies.

     

    He said local aid workers could continue to work with relevant government departments as volunteers, and food and other relief items could be provided through government convoys.

     

    But those directly affected by the fighting in Vanni appear to have less confidence in contingency plans to help them.

     

    Anxiety over their future spilled over on Friday when a hundreds of civilians protested against the relief agency withdrawal and tried to prevent a small convoy of U.N. and other agency vehicles from leaving.

     

    "The consequences are serious," said another aid worker who is familiar with the crisis. "And they will be exacerbated by the fact that these agencies who have the capacity to (provide humanitarian aid) have been banned from conducting their operations."

  • Government orders Tamils in Colombo to register with the Police

    The Sri Lankan Government  told thousands of people living in its capital "without any valid reason" to return to their villages, calling them a national security threat and ordered Tamils originating from the north and residing in Colombo for the last five years to register themselves with the police.

    The registration process took place on Saturday September 20 and Sunday September 21 at police stations and selected public premises in the city.

     

    The citizens were required to submit a one page declaration giving details of their origin and purpose of their current stay in the capital city.

    The move came days after Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa expressed concern over the sharp increase in exodus from northern region to the national capital and its surrounding areas in the last few weeks.

    Whilst on one hand, due to international pressure, the Sri Lankan government dropped leaflets in LTTE administered territories requesting the civilians in those regions to move into government held territory on the other hand Rajapakse does not want them to move out of the conflict zone and reach Colombo.


    Ignoring the fact that Colombo being the commercial and administrative capital with many government department offices and the only international airport in the island would naturally attract people from other provinces, Rajapakse said that presence of such a large number of outsiders was not normal.

     

    "In August, 6950 people have come to the Colombo police division and are temporarily living in lodges, houses and various other places. This is not normal," the defence secretary said.

     

    "Among other things it causes a lot of security risks."

     

    Rajapakse told the Daily News that thousands arrive in Colombo each month from other parts of the war-torn nation, many of them ethnic Tamils fleeing fighting in the north.

     

    "I prefer most of these people who had come from other areas to Colombo and suburbs and who are staying here without any valid reason to go back to their areas," Rajapakse was quoted in the state-run Daily News.

     

    Police Spokesperson SSP Ranjith Gunasekera speaking to reporters said there has been an exodus of civilians from areas such as Jaffna, Vavuniya, Kilinocchi, Mullaitivu and Mannar as the army made inroads and liberated areas that were under the control of Tamil Tigers.

    "These civilians fleeing from uncleared areas are also arriving in large numbers to the western province especially to the Colombo district," Gunasekara said.

    Gunasekera further said the police force has decided to obtain the details of such arrivals for maintaining records in different police areas of the western province.

     

    Colombo came under intense pressure from international human rights activists in June last year, when hundreds of Tamils were evicted from the city and told to return to their villages, some in conflict areas.

     

    They were later bused back to the city after the Supreme Court intervened and rapped the government.

     

    Rajapakse, who is President Mahinda Rajapakse's younger brother, said 6,950 people had come to Colombo in August alone and are now living in lodges and houses. He called the situation "abnormal" and "alarming."

     

    "If some people have come from the east or any other place to Colombo and if they are staying here without any reason they should go back to their places," he said.

     

    "That is the most preferable thing."

     

    Tamils have to obtain police permits to travel to the rest of the country under a system put in place to prevent the separatist rebels infiltrating the capital following a series of attacks.

     

    The Tamils, mainly from the north and east, come to the capital in the hope of obtaining passports to travel abroad and escape the war.

    Police Spokesperson SSP Ranjith Gunasekera told reporters inc Colombo that the move was aimed at protecting the people at large and the government did not intend to harass any one.

    However observers see this as another step by the Rajapakse government to intimidate and drive out Tamils from Colombo.

     

    In June last year the Sri Lankan government started forcibly evicted Northeast Tamils staying in Colombo and driving them out to conflict zone in bus loads. The action was only halted following an international outcry.

     

    At the time, international governments including the US, the EU, and India along with opposition politicians and number of international human rights organisations expressed their concern and condemned the exercise.

     

    The US led the condemnations saying the "action can only widen the ethnic divide."

     

    "The United States condemns the forced removal of Tamils from Colombo. Such measures violate the Sri Lankan Constitution's guarantee that every citizen has the right to freedom of movement and choice of residence within Sri Lanka," the US embassy said in a statement.

     

    "We call upon the government of Sri Lanka to stop the forcible removal of its citizens from Colombo, to make public the destinations of those already removed, and to ensure their safety and well-being," it added.

     

    The European Union in a strongly worded message issued by the embassy of Germany, currently President of the 27-state bloc condemned the government actions as “blatant violation of internationally recognized human rights”

  • Pain' of Sri Lanka aid pullout

    During my last weeks in Kilinochchi there was a foreboding sense of a massive army approaching from the south-west.

     

    The escalating war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government was bringing fighting closer to the town. It led to a massive movement of civilians in the region, known as the Vanni.

     

    I never heard gunfire or sounds of close-quarters fighting, instead day and night there were constant thuds and booms of artillery and rockets fired from multi-barrel launchers landing in the distance.

     

    Day after day, the constant rumble of heavy artillery got closer and closer. Twenty-four hours a day my office, bedroom, kitchen and bunker would be shaking with the thumps of shells landing. The sensation of the approaching doom was all too real with this kind of warfare.

     

    As an aid worker I had been struggling to provide greatly needed assistance to the ever increasing number of people who had been displaced by the fighting.

     

    They had fled from the unbearable noise and fear of the approaching artillery - at first this was happening mostly in the south-western areas of the Vanni. With few transport facilities families couldn't go far, just a few tens of kilometres, before they sheltered under trees.

     

    As the military advanced the shelling caught up with them and often they had to move again after a couple of days. Many of these areas to the south-west of the Vanni were out of bounds for us as aid workers because of the high danger. But as the military advanced further the people moving ahead of them came closer to Kilinochchi, and we began to meet them and hear their stories of multiple displacements.

     

    They were hungry, tired, afraid and traumatised. The children had not attended school for months, fathers had lost their means of making a living, such as fishing boats, nets and engines. Mothers were dealing with the raw emotion of just not being able to protect, feed and educate their families.

     

    As aid workers we tried our best to provide shelter, water and sanitation facilities to the people; we built emergency camps in areas that we predicted would be safe havens for people to gather, but as the days went by and the army approached Kilinochchi, the distant rumble of artillery rapidly escalated into a constant roar of shells raining down, in and around the town. Our own security was jeopardised and we were unable to continue to provide further assistance.

     

    The security situation spiralled to emergency levels; artillery and air attacks on Kilinochchi became a frequent event. The Sri Lankan government had put pressure on us to leave as they could not ensure our safety any more in the town. We were 10 international staff there by that time and we had to begin the heartbreaking task of trying to close our offices and relocate to government-controlled areas.

     

    Sheer panic

     

    Emotions were very high through those days, we were dealing with the guilt and frustration of having to leave at the time when humanitarian assistance was needed the most by the community that we had all got to know and develop strong relationships with. Stopping our programmes was professionally hard, but our staff became the focal point of our emotional state.

     

    The LTTE has a pass system for those who want to leave the Vanni for government areas. Many of our staff members were simply refused a pass for one reason or another.

     

    The passes are granted to individuals, not families, so those who were granted one had a heartbreaking decision to make, whether to leave their spouse and children behind under a barrage of shells and air attacks to come with us to continue to work and earn money, or to stay behind with their family and face the possibility of being forced to join the LTTE and sent to fight.

     

    To manage, advise and counsel our staff through this process was the hardest thing emotionally I and many of us had ever dealt with. As the roar of the shells got ever closer to Kilinochchi the urgency of the decision-making increased and staff had to begin to move to government areas, leaving their loved ones behind.

     

    I remember one morning when an air attack happened very close to me. I managed to get into the bunker quickly and narrowly escaped being hurt. I will never forget the noise of that fighter jet, the unbelievable sound of the engine as it swooped from the sky and the explosions of the bombs dropped close by.

     

    But the lasting image I have is of the sheer panic and traumatised people when I emerged. As aid agencies we have concrete fortified bunkers, but the population of Kilinochchi has muddy holes in the ground. I saw children shaking with fear and mothers trying to calm them while they themselves were shaking with fear.

     

    We were scheduled to leave Kilinochchi on Friday, 12 September but large-scale protests were held outside our compounds. The people were chanting "Don't Leave, Don't Leave".

     

    The demonstrators were so polite and respectful to us. They were not angry, they were desperate. They understood that we needed to end our operations, and told us that they would manage themselves with shelter and water.

     

    It was the prospect of our physical departure that terrified them. With no international presence and no witness to the conflict, they believed that many atrocities would occur and no one would see this.

     

    For three days the protests continued. We all understood and felt their fear but our hands were tied. The situation was becoming incredibly dangerous; some international aid workers had to leave their compounds and move to "safer areas" as artillery shells were landing within a few hundred metres of our compounds.

     

    For the final two days in Kilinochchi we spent much time in our bunkers as the artillery and air attacks intensified in and around the town. The sound through these days was tremendous, everything would shake and the air implode as the shells landed. In the near distance we could hear the terrifying sound of helicopter gunships, firing rockets.

     

    The residents of Kilinochchi town began to leave, moving further north, away from the approaching artillery. It was clear we would have to go too the following day or we would be stuck there.

     

    Shame

     

    On the morning of 16 September we lined our vehicles up at our compound and under heavy shelling and air attacks, wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets, we drove out of Kilinochchi town and headed for the government areas.

     

    We left a number of our staff, who could not get passes, behind. We shared tears, we shared the feelings of terror and intense guilt, and we left.

     

    I remember feeling deep shame as I drove past civilians who were watching me from the side of the road, in my ballistic vest, heading for safety, as they stood there in their trousers and shirts and saris. We drove through the site of a fresh air attack on the A9 road and once again saw the devastation it caused and understood what may come for Kilinochchi and its civilian population.

     

    Although I appreciate and respect the security rules that govern aid workers and understand why we had to leave, I still have to deal with a great sense that I abandoned those people. There is the pain and guilt of saying goodbye and good luck to our staff who had worked so hard and with such passion for the victims of war in the Vanni - and leaving them behind.

  • Global implications of Sri Lanka's civil war

    At first glance, Sri Lanka's vicious civil war might appear to have little consequence beyond the island's own teardrop-shaped shores.

     

    But the conflict has rapidly come to reflect tectonic shifts in global power.

     

    Since hostilities resumed in 2006, Sri Lanka's brutal attempts to crush the Tamil Tigers have brought its government into open confrontation with traditional Western allies and trading partners.

     

    For the last two years America, the UK and the EU have all loudly decried Sri Lanka's atrocious record on human rights, repeatedly accusing the government of failing to live up to basic international obligations.

     

    Last March a US State Department report accused the government, dominated by ethnic Sinhalese, of attacking civilians and practising "torture, kidnapping, hostage-taking, and extortion with impunity".

     

    All requests to allow the UN commissioner on human rights to set up a mission in Sri Lanka have simply been shrugged off by Colombo, which was last May voted off the UN's high commission for refugees.

     

    There was a time when such stinging rebukes from America and its Western allies in the international community would have forced restraint on a small, aid-dependent country like Sri Lanka. Not any more.

     

    When EU countries, including Britain, tried to pressure Sri Lanka by freezing the development aid on which the country's inflation-wracked economy depends, the government quickly found that less picky friends, in the shape of China and Iran, were only too willing to help.

     

    While Western politicians, like Britain's Lord Malloch Brown, the minister for south Asia, made statements condemning Sri Lanka at the United Nations, Sri Lanka cut the deals which have enabled it to ignore Western opinion.

     

    After a visit to Beijing by the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse, last year, China's aid to Sri Lanka increased fivefold to almost £500 million a year, a move which deeply unsettled India which already resents China's strategic alliance with its northern foe, Pakistan.

     

    For America, however, concerns over China's decision to fill the Sri Lankan aid vacuum have been eclipsed by Sri Lanka's blossoming relationship with Iran, which has pledged more than £900m in soft loans, grants and cheap oil, making it Sri Lanka's largest foreign donor overnight.

     

    When President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Colombo earlier this year, the Sri Lankan capital was plastered with billboard photographs of the two presidents, smiling beneath the slogans "The Friendly Path to Progress" and "Traditional Asian Solidarity."

     

    "In Asia, we don't go around preaching to our neighbours and our friends," said Sri Lanka's foreign secretary, Palitha Kohona, at the time. "This public naming and shaming process that seems to have become so popular in the West is really not so accepted here."

     

    The message is clear. With friends like China and Iran behind them, Sri Lanka no longer needs to allow the human rights concerns of Western powers to stop it fighting to its bitter end by fair means or by foul.

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